“Beijing, not Tibet,”

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The Dalai Lama is considering to renounce his re-birth. So he would take China in Tibet, his main enemy. Tibet expert, Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz explains the religious and political backgrounds.

DW: In an Interview with the Reuters news Agency, the Dalai Lama has recently made the continued existence of the Institution of the Dalai Lama after his death to the Disposition: This issue should be discussed at the end of the year, at a Meeting of Tibetan Buddhists in India. “If the majority of Tibetan people want to keep this Institution, then they will continue to exist. Then there is the question of the Re-incarnation of the 15th. Dalai Lama.” How likely do you think it is that there is no 15. The Dalai Lama will be?

Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz: I think That’s very unlikely, because of the Dalai Lama in exile to the focal point became the Tibetan national identity. There is no 15. Dalai Lama, the unity of the Tibetan Nation to the test, and there is a great risk of Breakage of the Tibetan society in different factions.

According to Tibetan Buddhist doctrine, decide but re-births, even if they re-embody or not. They do so from a posture of compassion, the highest ethical obligation in Mahayana Buddhism.

If the current Dalai Lama decides, in this spirit, to be born again, then birth line ends. As a basis for decision-making, he may consider the wishes of the Tibetan people. It can also be argued that the political disadvantages for the people in the Autonomous Region of Tibet by the Installation of a 15. Dalai Lamas would be so great that he will not, out of compassion, to re-birth. The Dalai Lama is a tradeoff between the Benefit and the harm that would arise as a result of a re-birth.

How could you find out the opinion of the “majority of the Tibetan people”? That would be quite difficult?

This could, for example, in the exile of a survey. Among the Tibetans in China, of course, is not possible. But there are many contacts between the Tibetan exile society and the inhabitants of Tibet and the adjoining Tibetan regions, and I’m sure that the opinion of the local people can be obtained in an informal way.

Birth house of Dalai Lama in Taktser in the province of Qinghai

15. Dalai Lama from India?

The Dalai Lama has also raised the possibility that his Re-incarnation in India to be found: “in the Future there could be two Dalai Lamas, one of here, a free country (India), and one of China selected.” How would Beijing in India-found 15. Dalai Lama to respond?

Negative. A in India found dead 15. The Dalai Lama would have its legitimacy through the traditional Tibetan selection. Beijing would argue that the selection had not been applied the method of the Golden urn, and, therefore, the Dalai Lama was not legitimate. The method of the Golden urn was introduced in 1793 by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty, it was prescribed for that time in the Qing Empire to the discovery of re-births. However, it has not been applied very often.

The introduction of the Golden urn clearly shows the primacy of politics before Religion in China. This is a long Chinese Tradition, and it continues in the policy of the PRC. It is, of course, a certain irony that the PRC relies on a method introduced by one of her rejected feudalistic Regime. And it is also contradictory that an atheist state, the sovereignty of interpretation claimed a religious procedure.

I assume that there are two 15. Dalai Lama, is born in exile, and one who is born in Tibet, and by the method of the Golden urn (on the basis of the corresponding act of 2007) is found is type:. And the Dalai Lama is right: This 15. Dalai Lama of China’s grace will not find any acceptance among the Tibetans in the world.

The visit by the Dalai Lama, 2017, in the controversial Indian border area in China (Arunachal Pradesh)

Two-pronged cultural policy of China in Tibet

How has the Chinese culture and religious policy in Tibet in the past decades?

Beijing’s policy in terms of the Tibetan culture as an expression of ethno-national identity intensified in the mid-1990s. Most visible expression of this was the establishment of the 11. Panchen Lama (the second highest religious leader in Tibet after the Dalai Lama) by the Central government rather than by a determination by the Commission of the monks in the year 1995. At the same time, the monasteries were taken back to strict on the leash. In the so-called Management Committee, which belong to every monastery, was a party, representative, sent, monitored, of course, exactly what’s going on in the monasteries. You then tried to unpopular practices, such as prayers for a long life of the Dalai Lama.

In 1994, the Chinese government had issued the foreign exchange: adaptation of Tibetan Buddhism to socialism. Over the years, the high Lamas were allowed to, even monks, for a short time to India to leave the country, have been able to hear, for example, teachings of certain Lamas in exile or the Dalai Lama. This was always limited and now banned almost entirely.

Beijing claims to promote Tibetan culture and language.

This is also wrong. So, for example, recently, the Buddhist Canon was reprinted in Tibetan. The Tibetan Academy of Sciences launches new projects, all of the classics of Tibetan literature are published in Tibetan. There are also excellent Tibetologen in Tibet, their colleagues from abroad are not allowed, however, research since 2008 in Tibet. The monasteries were in part rebuilt, especially in East Tibet, where many tourists come; in Central-Tibet, however, in this respect, much less made.

At the same time there is also a tendency for the Musealization of the Tibetan culture. For example, religious dances, which were performed in the monasteries are listed, now for tourists and lose its original meaning. That was always promoted by the Chinese, but is discussed in the case of the Tibetans is very controversial. What is the language policy subject: Chinese-lessons is, of course, for the professional or academic advancement of the minorities is essential, in this respect, Beijing is doing quite a bit for the latter.

Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz: China’s Tibet policy is in contradiction to his notion of the State as a Communist and atheist

Tibet as a spiritual destination for Chinese

What is the role of the sharp rise in Chinese tourism is in Tibet? Is he perceived as a threat?

I don’t really believe. There are two things that play a role. Once the Economic, so the question is: Who benefits? The big Hotels are in the hands of the Chinese. But there is also the benefit Tibetans, for example, as a leader of such groups of tourists. This is the a side.

The other is a spiritual one. The connection between the Chinese laypersons and Tibetan Lamas was already in the 19th century. Century and especially at the beginning of the 20th century. Century has been very strong. This link is now live again. The Chinese middle class has, so to speak, discovered in Tibet as Shangri-La, so what was Tibet at this myth, but it crumbled away in the meantime. Tibet as a mystical Land of Meditation, the originality. Not least because Tibet has become a very important tourist destination, and many Chinese lay people have a Tibetan Lama as their spiritual leader.

Tibetans do not want to assimilate

In spite of the aforementioned good deeds and the new fascination with the gap between Tibetans and Chinese continues, or?

It is just that the Tibetans do not want to assimilate, they want to just as the Mongols or the Uighurs. Therefore, high Lamas, of which the Chinese give to political Offices in order to involve them suffer, in the Tibetan population, a massive loss of Reputation. Such Lamas are seen as the lackeys of the Chinese government, the proximity to Power is perceived as morally pernicious, and in contrast, resistance is forming.

The strongest Form of protest against the heteronomy are the burns self. The number is down a little bit, but you go on. There are now analyses of Statements of these people that have been burned. Most of the women in the vicinity of monasteries, most of the men in the vicinity of state institutions. But for both, it’s mostly about the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan identity. And this shows that The Chinese government has with Tibet in the grip.

Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz the head of the Institute for religious studies at the University of Bern. Her research focus is, among other things, the cultural and religious history of Tibet and Mongolia.